Coming together October 18, 2006
Posted by uricohen in Darkhei Noam, General, Kehilat Hadar, Kol Zimrah, Minyanim, New York City, Synagogues.add a comment
By the end of 2003 Kol Zimrah, Kehilat Hadar and Darkhei Noam had begun, stabilized, and developed as individual prayer communities. They got better and better at serving the needs of their constituents, and the communities flourished on the upper west side, surrounded by the synagogues and other groups which had preceded them.In March of 2004 a new group came on the scene, bent on giving the UWS Jewish community an opportunity to expand its horizons.
Tikvat Yisrael was formed in late 2003 by 8 post-college individuals who had moved to New York City. I was one of them. We had enjoyed our college experiences, which were based on our experiences on our campuses, mostly in Hillel environments. We had enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate shabbat and other Jewish commonalities with others on the campus, and really understand what it means to be a Jewish community made up of a multitude of backgrounds.
When we moved to New York we had a whole new experience. No longer were we limited in our prayer options to the two or three or four services which were sustainable in our Hillels. In New York each person could come as close as is possible anywhere to finding a prayer service which meets their exact needs and interests. Floating from shul to shul, minyan to minyan was possible, and we enjoyed it. By the end of 2003, however, we realized that the community aspect was missing, and we felt that lack quite strongly.
We organized in late 2003, incorporated in January 2004, and had our first program in March of the same year. Our core model involved multiple prayer services operating simultaneously, yet independently under one roof in the same building. Housed in the Abraham Joshua Heschel lower school on 89th and Broadway, we operated three services which we called “liberal”, “traditional egalitarian” and “orthodox”. We stayed away from “conservative” and “reform” because it was our experience that many people felt pigeon-holed rather than described by these titles, and that those terms carried associations that were more harmful than helpful. On the other hand, we felt that we should call the third minyan “orthodox” to serve as a “hekhsher” of some kind for the attendees who would be looking for assurance that the service would meet their needs.
Following the services (held along the same hallway on the first floor), we devised a communal shabbat dinner, to be held upstairs in the gym. The idea was to provide an opportunity for everyone who attended to see, not just hear about others who were dedicated to prayer. To experience community, rather than just read or think about it. The doors on the service rooms were open, melodies flowed out as people could see in. We were hoping that this would be an attractive model, and one that would draw at least 10 people per service (and at least 10 men for the orthodox service).
We were absolutely shocked by the result. We took registrations for the dinner (and charged a nominal fee) and we sold out a week in advance with 140 registrants. We had been hoping to hit 40. We were hoping for 40-50 people come to services, and we were thrilled to see 200. There were people asking if they could come for dinner at the last minute, and we sat as many as we could.
The traditional egalitarian and orthodox services each saw around 80 attendees. The services were lay-led, and featured a traditional liturgy and a devar torah. The traditional egalitarian service featured mixed seating and full participation for women, and the orthodox service featured male-led prayer and a mehitzah. The liberal service was led by an accomplished service leader who led a beautiful non-traditional service using a guitar, with the chairs formed in a circle. This service had around 50 attendees.
For this first event we had men lead kiddush (blessings over the wine) and birkat hamazon (the grace after meals). A woman led the hamotzi (blessing over the bread). While we knew that this could not be a long-term solution to the gender participation issue, we thought that people would allow us some leeway in using this relatively mainstream approach. Though we did get some feedback about this, for the most part people were satisfied with this solution – for now.
The feedback was wonderful. People enjoyed the services, the experiences and the meal. People told us how they had missed these experiences and had really enjoyed them in their college lives. They were grateful to have such an opportunity and were excited for the next one to take place.
Meanwhile, we got press in the Jewish Week, and word began to spread…
Darkhei Noam background September 14, 2006
Posted by uricohen in Darkhei Noam, General, Minyanim, Synagogues.add a comment
Thanks to co-founder Jonathan Stein for this:
“Rodeph Sholom deserves a ton of credit for giving us space at cost. I just
cold called them out of the blue and their desire for real
inter-denominational interaction was very genuine. We even had their Rabbi
speak at DN once. So the back story about institutional versus
non-institutional minyanim needs more nuance. The Reform establishment was
backing some upstarts from the Modern Orthodox community.
And while DN certainly fits within the independent minyan framework, it also grew
out of stirrings within the Modern Orthodox community for something more
egalitarian, e.g., Rabbi Silber and the Drisha Minyan, the Edah Journal
article by Mendel Shaprio, etc.
I think that explains why DN attracts relatively more families than some of
the other ind. minyanim. And that demographic in turn explains some aspects
of how DN grew and didn’t grow, its fundraising, its later ties with
Heschel, etc.
And something I’d love to clarify for posterity: DN developed completely
independently of Shira Hadashah in Jerusalem, though SH’s larger numbers and
earlier launch date have often meant that DN is viewed as the UWS version of
SH. I’m not sure I mind the label, but the goings on in Jerusalem did not
have any direct impact on the development of DN.”
Thanks, Jon!
I’d love to get some more information on the cooperation between Rodeph Sholom and Darkhei Noam here. Can anyone elaborate on the methodology and/or thinking that contributed here?
Entrance of Kol Zimrah September 6, 2006
Posted by uricohen in Kol Zimrah, Minyanim, Synagogues.add a comment
Courtesy of Ben Dreyfus’ “Comment”:
- Kol Zimrah (before it had a name) began with an email, announcing “A heavily musical Shabbat service. The service will include the full kabbalat shabbat and maariv liturgy, and will be accompanied by acoustic guitar. It will include melodies from Debbie Friedman to Shlomo Carlebach to ‘Traditional’ to never-before-sung, and the harmonies will be spectacular. Bring your favorite siddur, and your voice.” People forwarded this email to their friends and their lists, and their friends forwarded it to their friends, and 67 people showed up to that first service, and the rest was history. The first service was in the playroom at the aforementioned Key West. (The use of the playroom was unauthorized, and the doorman told our Key West liaison “Don’t do this again.”)
After soliciting suggestions for names, we named Kol Zimrah quickly, so that it could develop a community identity. (We were afraid that if the minyan didn’t have a name, then people would refer to it as “BZ’s minyan”, or by the names of one of the other leaders, in the same way that Kehilat Kedem in Jerusalem was known colloquially as “Philip’s minyan” for a long time before it had a name. We didn’t want Kol Zimrah to be seen as an oligarchy.)
Even though KZ is not that much younger than the other minyanim mentioned, it represents a new generation in some ways, because by the time we started, there was already an active independent minyan scene in place, and we saw Kol Zimrah as self-consciously fitting into the independent minyan ecosystem. So we started off meeting one Friday night a month (which is approximately true to this day), with the understanding that we could hop around to other ongoing minyanim (or ad hoc apartment davening) the other 3 Friday nights, or on Shabbat morning.
When we first envisioned Kol Zimrah, I anticipated that it would appeal only to a very narrow slice of the Jewish community, since some people would not go for a service with instruments on Shabbat, and others would not go for a service all in Hebrew. Instead, KZ has attracted an incredibly diverse community, with a wide range of backgrounds and practices. We have had the opportunity to explore pluralism within our community. For example, our services adhere to the macroscopic structure of the traditional liturgy, but the leader can incorporate whatever microscopic variations s/he wants, from any siddur, with the understanding that each participant is also free to relate to the service in different ways.
For the first year, Kol Zimrah was highly mobile, operating on a $0 budget and meeting wherever we could find space. After that first service in the Key West playroom, we met a few times in various spaces at JTS, a few times in a large (but not large enough) apartment still in the Key West, and in the basement of another apartment building. Eventually we largely stabilized, meeting in Riverside Park in the summer, at the SAJ (with whom we have built a positive relationship) during the year, and at the Jewish Home & Hospital on occasion.
In late 2003, Kol Zimrah incorporated as a religious corporation, and had an “IPO“, asking for voluntary contributions from people in the KZ community. This made it possible to pay for space, and we now have a potluck Shabbat dinner after services each month (using the two-table system). To this day, Kol Zimrah is run entirely by volunteers, and funded entirely by contributions from the KZ community (with no membership dues, and no membership).
Hadar drill-down 2002 September 6, 2006
Posted by uricohen in Kehilat Hadar, Minyanim, New York City, Synagogues.add a comment
Here are some more details on the development of Hadar in 2002.
Here are the places that Hadar met for Shabbat morning services through August 2002:
Ethan Tucker’s apartment (Apr 28, 01)
Len Sharzer’s apartment (5/12/01-6/23/01)
113th St. Apartment (6/30/01)
El Taller (7/14/01-1/29/02)
Claremont Children’s School (7/28/01)
Franciscan Community Center (12/1/01-12/29/01)
Advent Lutheran (1/12/02)
JTS- Stein Chapel (1/26/02)
NY Buddhist Church (2/9/02)
Barnard (James Room) (2/23/02)
Ansche Chesed 6th Fl (3/9/02)
2nd Pres Church (3/23/02)
Various Friday night services also took place, utilizing spaces such as: Central Park, Key West; and then other holidays: 7th day Pesah in conjunction with Congregation Shaare Zedek, Tisha B’Av at Congregation Habonim, Simhat Torah at Congregation Ansche Chesed, Purim and High Holiday services at Trinity Church, St Lukes Hospital, and JTS.
2002 also saw the beginnings of three key programs which have remained as mainstays of Hadar’s operations to this day:
1. The Shavuot Retreat: May 2002 saw the first Hadar Shavuot Retreat at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. The retreat occurred on Friday and Saturday May 17-18, and featured an all-night Tikkun Leil Shavuot – a full night of study lasting from after dinner (around 10PM) through dawn, culminating in what was, perhaps, the most spiritual davening of the whole year. Julia Andelman led Shacharit beginning at 5AM capping off the night. The remainder of the retreat featured various classes, outdoor activities, meals, and other activities.
2. High Holiday Services: Hadar held its first ever Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in the fall of 2002. Preceded by Selichot services led by Rabbi Ebn Leader, the services set a new precedent for High Holiday services, requiring no ticket purchases, only preregistration and a suggested donation to keep Hadar operational. As I heard from people who attended services not that year but in the years that followed, “it’s the longest, fastest Yom Kippur services ever.” The length of the full liturgy was enhanced by the spirituality of the singing and unison of voices.
3. The Hadar Beit Midrash: Hadar began its first official education program in 2002. The program, held at the JCC in Manhattan, was a diverse array of teachers speaking on a more diverse array of topics to a fascinated audience. The program has seen different topics (Parashat Hashavuah, the weekly Torah portion), philosophy, history and other topics.
By 2002 Hadar had also seen its first lunch and learn program and its first aufruf.
The Second Presbyterian Church became the regular home of Hadar in 2002, which put an end to the multiplicity of locations. One could now attend Hadar on a given week without any question as to where it would be held. This was a new stage in Hadar’s development – attachment to a space (while not a permanent or residential arrangement) added a permanence and a dependability which heretofore had only been associated with synagoguges. Now the only question was not where, but WHEN Hadar would meet. Two times a month at that stage…
